The 2020 UCI World Tour was a series of races that was scheduled to include thirty-six road cycling events throughout the 2020 cycling season.[1] However, some of races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The tour started with the opening stage of the Tour Down Under on 21 January,[1] and concluded with the final stage of the Vuelta a España on 8 November.[3][4]
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 21 January – 8 November |
| Location |
|
| Races | 21 |
Events
The 2020 calendar was initially announced in June 2019.[1] In October 2019, the calendar was officially presented by the UCI.
There were two races fewer in the original schedule than in the 2019 UCI World Tour:
- The Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was downgraded to the UCI ProSeries for 2020 due to lack of participation of UCI World Tour teams in 2018 and 2019.[5]
- The Tour of California was not held in 2020 after being placed on hiatus.[6]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that commenced in the spring, numerous races were postponed, including all three Grand Tours and four of the five annual 'monuments'. As a result, race organisers requested new date allocations with the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for many of these events. On 5 May 2020, a revised calendar was announced by the UCI, with 25 races to be held between 1 August and 8 November; several races are scheduled to overlap, including the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a España and Paris–Roubaix.[7] Of the 25, Eschborn–Frankfurt and the EuroEyes Cyclassics had dates still to be confirmed at the time of the calendar's publication.[8] Further amendments were made to the calendar in June, with two more races being cancelled, several others moving dates and the EuroEyes Cyclassics was scheduled for October.[3]
Cancelled events
A total of fifteen events were not able to be rescheduled, or were definitively cancelled during the 2020 season. The centennial Volta a Catalunya (23–29 March),[14] the Tour of the Basque Country (6–11 April),[15] the Tour de Romandie (28 April to 3 May),[16] the Tour de Suisse (7–14 June),[17] and the Clásica de San Sebastián (25 July) were all cancelled prior to any updated calendars being released by the UCI.[15] Following the May calendar update, the E3 BinckBank Classic (27 March),[8] and the RideLondon–Surrey Classic (16 August) were both cancelled;[18] in the June calendar update, Eschborn–Frankfurt (initially scheduled for 1 May), and Dwars door Vlaanderen (having been rescheduled for 14 October) were also cancelled.[3] In July, the EuroEyes Cyclassics (initially scheduled for 16 August, and then rescheduled to 3 October),[19] and the two Canadian races in Québec City and Montréal (scheduled for 11 and 13 September) were cancelled.[20]
Following the recommencement of racing on 1 August, the season-ending Tour of Guangxi (initially scheduled for 15–20 October, and then rescheduled to 5–10 November) was cancelled on 10 August.[4] On 30 September, the day after Dutch stages were removed from the BinckBank Tour, the Amstel Gold Race (initially scheduled for 19 April, and then rescheduled to 10 October), was cancelled following a surge of cases attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.[12][21] On 9 October, Paris–Roubaix (initially scheduled for 12 April, and then rescheduled to 25 October) was cancelled after a rise in cases attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic in France.[22]